Nobody's that crazy about riding in a Camry, but I'm pretty sure no one's had a worse ride than the dog that spent an eleven-mile ride from Taunton, MA to Providence, RI crammed in a Toyota's lower grille.

The suspected poodle-bichon frise mix ran onto Route 44 right in front of the Camry. The driver braked to avoid hitting the dog, slowing to about 50 MPH, and and then stopping and pulling over to check for the dog around the car. Not seeing anything, the driver continued on his route.

Of course, he didn't see the dog because the Camry had chomped the dog, Pac-Man style, right into the lower front valance air intake, behind the front license plate frame. Eventually, someone flagged him down to helpfully let him know that he had a dog wedged in his car's grille. I'm sure the person was concerned that the restricted airflow could cause higher-than-normal coolant temperatures.

The driver drove directly to the police department, where qualified animal control officers removed the pup and took her to a clinic, where she was examined and X-ray'd. Incredibly, she had no broken bones or any issues more serious than a mild concussion.

The rather sweet-looking dog had no identification, but efforts to find her owner were successful, and she's back with them now. That's one very unlucky, then possibly lucky, dog. Or just a very confused little dog.

As an aside, this story is peppered with strangely geeky details: the city is Taunton, which is weirdly close to Tauntaun, the animal you cut open and hide in when you're freezing to death on the ice planet Hoth, and the animal control supervisor for East Providence is named William Muggle. Muggle, like a Harry Potter-world non-magic person. The story calls the dog a "miracle" dog, but based on all the sci-fi/fantasy clues here, this dog must be some kind of impact-resistant magical space dog.

Also, this event is triggering the Jalopnik campaign to require padded, shock-tolerant doggy beds on the front of all Camrys.